The Best Brands of No or Low Alcohol Beer

Changing Tides is a 0.5% vegan lager from Toast Ale, which replaces some of the brewing yeast with leftover bread, to save on food waste. Profits go to help a food waste charity. It’s made with English hops and malted barley. Pubs, hotels and restaurants can order marketing materials and beer mats (the brand also sells boozy beers!)

No alcohol can be 0% booze, as even fruit and bread contain a little alcohol. But 0.5% is the main percentage used. It is safe to drive, but it’s best to avoid even this amount, if pregnant or nursing.

Before recycling, pop the ring-pulls back over the cans, to help avoid wildlife getting caught inside. Set up a can recycling program to raise money for your community! Never buy beers wrapped in plastic rings, they harm wildlife (if you see any, rip the holes and securely bin).

Beer to Make a Real Difference!

Toast Brewing is a great company. All of its beers are vegan, and after paying for manufacture and salaries, profits go to help Feedback, a food waste charity to help feed hungry people. And each beer is helping to use up the colossal amount of bread waste (it even has a contract with Warburton’s to make ‘crumpet beers!’

The brand was founded by Tristram Stuart, who has now taken a back seat  to focus on his fight against  food waste, though he is still part of the company. His book Waste is literally the world’s answer to the food crisis, on a planet where more food is thrown away each day, that could feed every hungry person on earth.

Crops rot in the developing world, because farmers lack the means to store and transport them to market. This book takes him around the world and back home to England, talking to potato farmers and food industry CEOs, and meeting some foraging pigs along the way!

Tristram is an interesting character. Although he is a ‘freegan’ (who chooses to live off self-produced or discarded food, in order to highlight the global food scandal), he comes from a wealthy background (the grandson of an Earl), which makes him all the more inspirational. Instead of sitting on a bank balance, he is choosing the save the world!

Tristram’s main belief is that if you preach doom and gloom, it won’t work. But if you create positive solutions (like making fantastic vegan beers made from Warburton’s leftover crumpets), it becomes fun. And most people want to do the right thing.

So switch beers today! Tristan’s eventual wish is that Toast Brewing no longer exists, as there will be no bread waste o make it!

Supermarkets didn’t even want to talk to me, about how much food they were wasting. I’d been round the back. I’d seen bins full of food being locked and then trucked off to landfill sites. And I thought, surely there is something more sensible to do with food, than waste it. Tristram Stuart

Imagine walking out of a grocery store with four bags of groceries. Dropping one in the parking lot, and just not bothering to pick it up. That’s essentially what we’re doing. Dana Gunders

What is Alcohol-Free Beer?

No alcohol can really be 0% booze, as even fruit and bread contains a little alcohol. But 0.5% is as low as you can get. It’s officially safe to drive (but still best to avoid for pregnancy/nursing).

Do You Drink Too Much Booze?!

If you like to drink boozy beer, and are wondering whether you need to cut down (and perhaps sub with a few alcohol-free beers through the week), here is a simple guide (none of that confusing ‘unit’ stuff):

For a normal sized adult, NHS recommendations are (these are either/or – not all together!):

• 6 pints of beer a week (not all on the same day!)
• 6 glasses of wine a week
• 12 measures of spirits

So in plain English, if you drink 14 pints of beer a week (way over recommended limits) but still wanted to drink beer, you would cut down to one beer a day for six days (and the other one could be alcohol-free, plus go booze-free one day a week). Or mix and match if you also drink wine or spirits.

How to Recycle Beer Cans

You don’t need to crush cans before recycling. But do just pop the ring-pulls back over the holes beforehand, as this stops curious wildlife (like hedgehogs or snails/slugs) getting trapped.

Set up a can recycling program to raise money for your community!

These beers are packed in cardboard. But never buy brands wrapped in those plastic beer rings, as they harm wildlife (they are invisible in water, even though they are ‘biodegradable’). Some shops now ban their sale. If the big brands (like Stella Artois) can pack in cardboard, so can the others.

Why Choose Vegan Beers?

Many beers (especially cask beers) are filtered through gelatine (animal bones) or isinglass (fish bladder). So look for vegan beers. These use natural methods that take a little longer, but result in better taste.

Below Brew Co: Alcohol-Free Craft Beers

Below Brew Co is an independent alcohol-free brewing company, offering a small range of drinks in beautifully designed cans. You can buy in local shops, or shop online (including mixed cases and taster packs.

The range includes:

• Brune DMC (Belgian brown ale – supports local economies unlike Newcastle Brown Ale, owned by Heineken)
• Neipa Cosmic Turtle (New England IPA)
• Wild Juice Chase (juicy pale ale)
• Heaven & Helles (gluten-free lager)
• Forgot to Take My Pils (hoppy Pilsner)
• All Hopped Up (IPA)
• Unruly AF (pale ale)

Small Beer (low-alcohol beers & mini-kegs)

Small Beer Brew Co (London) offers vegan beer with half the alcohol and fewer calories, sold in cans or bottles or in kegs for parties, pubs, hotels and restaurants. Sustainably-crafted in a B-corp brewery, this is made with the finest British barley. Low-alcohol beers are classed as drinks with APV of 1.2% (compared to conventional beers that are around 4.4%).

The company’s brewing kit uses around an eighth of the water typically used and the brewery is cleaned with recovered heat and water, and all packaging is recycled. Spent grain is delivered to a local farm. The range includes:

• Pale ale (tropical fruits)
• Amber (toasty rye)
• Lager (citrus nose)
• Hazy (apricot & tropical fruits)
• IPA (bitter orange & biscuit)
• Blanche (made with Sussex coriander and Spanish orange peel)

The company also offers beers in mini-kegs (up to 9 pints), which can be stored cold and consumed within a month of delivery. Once open, drink within a couple of days. Ideal for parties, empty kegs can be recycled. The site has full info on how to use kegs.

 

Lucky Saint: Superior Alcohol-Free Beer

Lucky Saint is a brand of superior alcohol-free beer, which is widely sold across England in grocery stores. Left unfiltered for maximum flavour, and made with all natural ingredients. It’s also vegan-friendly, and low in calories and sugar.

The beer is not gluten-free, due to Pilsner malt used.

The beer is brewed to German purity laws, and takes four weeks to allow the sediment to drop out of the beer naturally, so it can remain unfiltered.

• Lucky Saint blends toasty Pilsner malt with fresh citrus German hops (dried lemon, light orange) and has a fresh bread aroma. Blend with Fentimans lemonade for a summer shandy, or serve over ice with ginger beer.
• Hazy IPA has notes of tropical and stone fruits.
• Lemon Lager includes a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
• Weissbier is a Bavarian wheat beer, with notes of cloves, banana and citrus.

All beers are available wholesale (including on draught).

Artisan Shandy Shack (from Hampshire)

Shandy Shack (Hampshire) is a great brand of low-alcohol ready-made shandy, founded by some men who still liked to have fun, but were getting a bit old to deal with hangovers! These vegan drinks have around 25% of the alcohol of a typical can of beer. Check medication before consuming ginger. 

Sold in various flavours (elderflower, ginger, raspberry).

If you can’t find this brand in shops, to make your own shandy, just mix your favourite artisan vegan beer with Fentimans Victorian lemonade (brewed in Northumberland to a 100-year old Botanical recipe, this has pear and herbal notes).